Lysander’s Geraci: “If I could wave a wand, I would open up our spray park. Kids are not getting sick”

By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

As New York state and the nation slowly begin to reopen, local leaders and residents are struggling with what many are calling the “new normal” of face masks, social distancing and other cautionary measures aimed at reducing the spread of coronavirus.

In Lysander and Van Buren, as in many other towns, officials have decided to limit certain park amenities and programs until they receive guidance from county and state leaders that it is safe to fully reopen.

The Van Buren Town Board voted May 19 to not operate the town pool, summer playground and day camp programs this year.

“We can’t run the concession stand. The pool activities are antithetical to social distancing. With people in the water, you couldn’t do it,” Councilor Howard Tupper said.

Councilor Wendy Van Der Water said she realizes many families use the town’s summer programs as day care, but the health risks are too great for the town to risk it.

“It’s too soon to bring all these kids together,” she said.

Supervisor Claude Sykes said Van Buren’s playground equipment has been cordoned off, basketball hoops have been removed, the disc golf course has been shut down and restrooms are closed. The lodge and pavilion at Van Buren Park lack adequate space to maintain social distancing among kids who participate in the summer programs, he added.

Sykes said guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that playground facilities and restrooms should be disinfected frequently, and Van Buren’s parks and recreation department does not have the staff to clean as frequently as the CDC recommends.

“It’s going to be unfortunate but we’re better off erring on the side of caution,” Sykes said.

Van Buren residents itching to get outdoors need not despair, however: Van Buren Park is still open for jogging, walking, fishing and tennis.

Councilor Ron Dudzinski reminded residents that the Erie Canal Trail in Memphis is open as well.

“Please go out and enjoy it, there’s plenty of room to walk, it’s very desolate. It’s quiet and there’s fishing out there. It’s really something you might want to go out there and give a look,” he said.

Residents who use park facilities must remember to maintain social distancing and respect the town’s policies and local laws. Deputy Supervisor Mary Frances Sabin said the parks department has reported instances of parkgoers not social distancing, having parties with alcohol and letting dogs run wild in the park.

“If people aren’t going to social distance now when it’s still mandatory, when it’s less mandatory I don’t think anybody is going to pay attention to it,” she said.

Sykes thanked Sabin for guiding Van Buren through the first few weeks of the COVID-19 crisis. The supervisor was on vacation when the shutdown began. Sykes said he kept in touch with Sabin on a daily basis via email while he was out.

“I was in Arizona when all this hit and the plug got pulled. I want to thank Mary Frances for her leadership on this whole situation and getting the ball moving in the right direction and getting the town set up to do what we need to do following the guidelines issued by the state,” Sykes said. “I know it’s been a lot of work since I got back and I know it was a lot of work for her. … I cannot even imagine what it was because to be honest this is the first time anybody has ever dealt with this and everybody from the federal government on down was flying by the seat of their pants with this.”

“My sole mission was to protect the employees and make sure the building was safe,” Sabin said. “If anyone had a comment that they did not feel comfortable with people coming in, we tried to act as quickly as we could to protect all the employees and still maintain some services.”

Lysander’s Geraci: NYS too ‘fearful’

While Van Buren officials generally agreed that restrictions on park activities are necessary to limit the spread of the virus, members of the Lysander Town Board expressed varying opinions on the response to the pandemic at their meeting May 21.

As with their counterparts across the river, park facilities are limited in Lysander. Recreation Supervisor Tony Burkinshaw said the playground is fenced off, and the pavilions and bathrooms remain winterized and closed. The Paper Mill Island concert series and the popular “Little Kids, Big Trucks” event have been postponed. The trails and tennis courts remain open.

“It kills me to even have fencing up around the playground and take the basketball hoops down, but that’s what we need to do to keep our community and people safe,” Burkinshaw said. “Literally when I was taking down the basketball hoop, there was kids in the parking lot dribbling a basketball wanting to play.”

Burkinshaw said the spray park, which opened at the end of last summer, was supposed to open Memorial Day weekend.

“Right now it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon or at all,” he said, adding that the town of Camillus has decided not to open its spray park for the season.

Lysander Deputy Supervisor Bob Geraci expressed his frustration with the restrictions handed down by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

“What’s bothering me about all of this, without sounding irresponsible, is that because this state had so many horrible cases in New York City we’re being hampered and penalized in Central New York,” Geraci said. “Other states that are very similar to the population base that we have — they’re fully open.”

Geraci said states such as South Dakota, Georgia and Florida have begun to reopen businesses, parks and places of worship. He said Catholic bishops in Minnesota are defying their state’s orders and preparing to celebrate Mass publicly.

“If I could wave a wand, I would open up our spray park. Kids are not getting sick. They’re not being impacted by this disease,” Geraci said.

Geraci said states that have reopened have not had a resurgence of the disease, and Upstate New York is “marching to the tune of a state that is more fearful than required or necessary.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the state of Georgia now has more than 40,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 1,700 deaths. On May 21, AJC reported that Georgia had 862 new cases and 78 newly reported deaths. Last week, Georgia’s Department of Public Health received backlash after it published a graph that mistakenly suggested a decline in cases, but the graph was not arranged in chronological order.

The Keloland Media Group in South Dakota reported that the state saw 73 new cases of COVID-19 on May 21, bringing South Dakota’s total to 4,250 cases.

Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health projects that “delays in reimplementing social distancing following a relaxation of control measures could result in a stronger rebound of COVID-19 infections and deaths.” Scientists at Columbia calculated that if the United States had adopted control measures by March 8 instead of March 15, about 36,000 lives could have been saved.

While COVID-19 initially was believed to affect older people more than children, doctors are seeing an inflammatory immune response in kids who have had COVID-19. According to the CDC, this condition has been dubbed multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C. Affected children may have inflammation of the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs and may suffer from a rash, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue and abdominal pain.

Van Buren Supervisor Claude Sykes referenced MIS-C at his town board’s meeting two days earlier, saying that it is similar to Kawasaki disease.

Lysander Supervisor Bob Wicks also alluded to MIS-C in response to Geraci’s comments.

“I’m not an epidemiologist and I don’t think anyone in here is, [but] I disagree with Mr. Geraci that our kids aren’t being affected. … They’re coming down with that crazy rash,” Wicks said. “I don’t want to be responsible for that.”

Wicks said he understood the frustration, but the town must follow county and state guidelines, which can change from day to day.

“There’s no good answers. We don’t live in Georgia — we live in New York state, and unfortunately we have to follow the rules we are given,” he said.

Lysander was set to reopen town hall this week by appointment only. The town board voted to approve a draft policy requiring visitors to complete a health questionnaire, wear face coverings and maintain social distancing.

Councilor Pete Moore said he has been hearing many references in the media to the “new norm” of COVID-19 control measures.

“Nothing that we’re going through is normal and I don’t want people to get the sense that it is. It is not normal in the United States of America to be told when you can or can’t leave your home … what you must wear. There will come a time when we demand normalcy and this isn’t it,” Moore said.

Geraci said he does not “want to accept this as the new normal.”

“I want to go back to the way it was. Some people seem to be complicit or okay with ‘If we have to wear face masks for the rest of our lives, then that’s what we have to do,’” he said. “I hope we’re not getting too far down the Chicken Little slope here of ‘the sky is falling.’”